Mists of Salamira

Now as your characters are quite high in their level with most of you in the heroic tier (some even halfway to legendary), advancement should – and will – slow down.
We're still going to use the AP as we did previously, but the points will be calculated differently, as such:

1 AP for participation. If you are there but do not participate, no AP.

1 AP for a summary of what your characters learned, which might be in a diary entry form, a short sentence or two stating facts or whatever you feel is appropriate.

1 AP if your character has made a bad decision or failed a crucial/important save/check that shifted the story onto a different course or hindered you or the party greatly – as you learn from your mistakes.

1 AP for overcoming a major obstacle, regardless of that being personal, (resolving an issue from your character's past), combat-related (defeating a boss) or campaign related (helping two opposing nobles make peace).

So it's generally going to be 2-3 AP / session with about every 3rd being a major one with that extra AP in the end.

going semi-digital :)

All characters made it through the adventure. As they arrived to Thuul-veela, their experience gained them an extra level.

Quill gained 10 AP, for a total of 18. She is now at level 13 with 6 AP (of 14 that's necessary to reach her next level).
Sei gained 7 AP, for a total of 18. She is now at level 13 with 6 AP (of 14 that's necessary to reach her next level).
Relcor gained 4 AP. He is now at level 11 with 4 AP (of 12 that's necessary to reach his next level).

Astra gained 4 AP, for a total of 6 (of 11 that's necessary to reach her next level.)

Just as most of the party regained consciousness, paladins arrived from the Bannerkeep and started to clean up the collapsed tower and look for any survivors. Hope Rieta, the first cleric of Lilith and The Mantle, leader of the arcane circle of necromancers arrived as well and quickly determined that there were no dead under the rubble. Nor did they find the staff of Lady Assylia (leader of the Blackmoon Rock arcane circle and an acquaintance of the party) or the holy symbol that belonged to Domenicos, the first cleric of Eve. It seems they both vanished with Torgen and the others.

The party did manage to get some information from them, learning that Torgen probably escaped the destruction of his tower by getting to another plane of existence. Relcor also received a letter from Zanthumal, an old friend of his, that revealed that the headmaster of the Royal Hall was really up to no good and has been spying on the party for some time now.

The heroes sought out the elder sage, a half-dwarf who reluctantly helped them find a way to Thuul-veela, the Realm Beyond the Stars, the outer porch of the actual afterlife (be it heaven or hell), where the wizard had probably taken their friends. After getting some rest in the Wings and Beaks, a floating tavern over Salamis, hiring assassins of Lilith to help them on their quest to the other plane, gathering some information about Thuul-veela itself and finally saving Borok from being abducted to somewhere cold and bitter, the party eventually decided to get to Torgen by first helping The Mantle with her monster problem.

Following the necromancer to Daggerpyre Rock they could quite easily track the giant beast that turned out to be a hydra – and it was not alone; the mysterious guy in the antlers mask followed them with his gwyllt zombies and attacked them when the party was about to face the multi-headed monstrosity. It wasn't easy, but they managed to destroy them all.

They spent the night in Daggerpyre and found Astra missing from her room with signs of her being abducted just as Borok had almost been the night before. They could also hear the heart wrenching sound of an infant suffocating somewhere as they all remembered how Torgen had warned them not to be away for long…

Getting back to the standing stone of Daggerpyre they found The Mantle already in preparation of getting them to Thuul-veela – and she transported them all over to the porch of the afterlife before Malagar could've joined them.

Having basically lost the aid of another member of their quickly shrinking party, they managed to stop one of the ogre-drawn carriages of this scope of the Shadowfell and thus got to the walls of the shadow-city of Salamis, called Shadowmist, fairly quickly. Getting through the outer defenses comprised of a moat filled with moaning souls, a pack of hungry gargoyles, a small group of shadow archers and a seemingly bottomless trench with no safe bridges proved to be no easy task, especially as they were saving their spells for their friends' rescue mission, but they succeeded.

After they finally got inside, they even managed to avoid Torgen's scouting shadow ravens before they were approached by a tall, gloomy figure. He didn't really introduce himself, almost turned Borok's hand to smoke and eventually convinced the party about being an ally to them and managed to get them to follow him to where Torgen cannot hear or see them. This turned out to be the mausoleum of the very first martyrs of Salamiran history, Kalaveas and now the figure is assumed to be none other than that.

independent dream-session

In their strange, out-of-body experience through a sequence of dreams, Quill and Sei learned a variety of secrets about the True Mist and the Witch King himself, so they are awarded AP for the one-shot side-session as well.

Quill gained 5 AP, for a total of 8 (of 12 that's necessary to reach her next level).
Sei gained 5 AP, for a total of 11 (of 12 that's necessary to reach her next level).

as told in Quill's diary

In the dream a slythak huntress had found a secret of the True Mist and tried to report it to the Old King. She couldn't meet with him, but got the information to him through proxy and was asked to team up with a young looking noblewoman to speak to an Oracle about the Witch King's descendants.

They didn't seem to get along, but they reached the Oracle in time to witness one of the Zodiac's attempt to kill her. They intervened, driving the Zodiac off, and in return the Oracle told them to return with another group that was also there to seek the answers to their questions.

The group in question were all near identical tieflings, and apparently came from a tribe of some sort. The slythak huntress and her human companion went, and found that the tribe of warriors were all descendants of the Witch King. The previous captain had fallen into a paralysis induced coma, and one of the lieutenants asked for our help stealing an amulet that would help her speak to him. The slythak huntress and her human companion, who seemed to have the ability to turn into a cat, did so with… enthusiasm, and what the captain had to say wasn't very encouraging. The Witch King himself had tried to take over his body, and when he wasn't successful he tried to end him.

The group decided that the only hope the tieflings had was to get both the old and new captains to the Old King, but when they went the teleportation was interfered with- instead of arriving in Salamis again, the slythak huntress found herself in some sort of shadow plane, and the two tieflings had been turned to stone.

Quill gained 10 AP, for a total of 14. She is now at level 11 with 3 AP (of 12 that's necessary to reach her next level).
Sei gained 10 AP, for a total of 17. She is now at level 11 with 6 AP (of 12 that's necessary to reach her next level).
Relcor gained 5 AP, for a total of 10. He is now at level 10 with 0 AP (of 11 that's necessary to reach his next level).

Astra gained 2 AP, for a total of 2 (of 11 that's necessary to reach her next level.)

A small group of Salamiran guards and a paladin from the Bannerkeep has been dispatched to greet and guide the party through the capital. After a short detour to try buying themselves permits to cast spells freely (and falling short on the gold required to do so), the team went to see the Old King in his humble palace, often referred to as the Living Crypt.

Besides meeting some influential characters of Salamis' court, they explained the dire situation the kingdom seems to be in, i.e. that the last Medan Witch King is about to return, using his influence on the most important kata and unleashing the True Mist to disguise the whole process. The King proposed some questions to check the validity of the information and was eventually made to believe most of what he had heard.

Salamis ordered the paladin, Bearer Astra to continue and guide them as long as she could and told the characters to see Master Torgen, the headmaster of the Royal Hall (and thus the first wizard in the city and kingdom) as he had already conducted plenty of research on the Medans and the True Mist. This stroke a sensitive nerve with Relcor as it was Torgen who used his influence as a headmaster to render it impossible for Relcor to become a royal wizard and forced his father out of his job after an intellectual dispute between the two of them…

On their way to Torgen's tower on Iridium Hill, they were attacked by several assassins bearing marks of the church of Lilith. After the initial moments of surprise that almost claimed some of their lives, they managed to get the better of their attackers and repel them. Remembering the regulations of the assassins, which states that after a failed assassination attempt, the victims have a right to learn who ordered their deaths, the team made a short detour to the central temple of Lilith.

On their way, they met an old enemy: father Taurus Wenn, the inquisitor from the kingdom-wide-banned order of the Swordcross. He had some additional muscle with him that included some fighters from the party's past ventures. The inquisitor disregarded Astra's call for peace and a right to pass – and was lifted up in the air by Sei's telekinesis. After the priest insulted the tiefling's family and bloodline on multiple occasions and after hearing his friend's approval, the sorcerer dropped Wenn from a 120' height and he was crushed death. Astra decided to bring him back to life and let him atone, but after it became obvious that he intended to do no such thing, Quill finished him off for good.

In the central temple of Lilith they later found out that it was, in fact, Master Torgen, who hired the thus-far quite successful assassination team; and that he had also left a small gift for Relcor, should they survive. The gift was an old calligraphy kit that belonged to the warlock's mother and that was inherited by his sister Reia, who was still living in Salamis.

Making their way to Reia's home, they didn't find either her or her husband there. But they met their servants, including Somol, who explained that Reia and her baby are with Master Torgen as she has been hired by the wizard as a personal scribe. To help out their small family with an extra income, he said.

The party was offered shelter and bed; they took the offer and decided to rest before actually visiting the headmaster – or taking any action against him. The city had other plans though. In about two-three hours, the ground began to rumble, and they soon saw the very tower where they were supposed to go, Torgen's home, collapse.

Making their way to the site as quickly as they could they found a dome that somehow protected every building nearby – and that prevented almost everyone from entering. Almost everyone, except for Relcor, who could pass as if the dome never existed, and he took a Quill-turned-magpie bird in his hands with him. The others shortly followed by the help of Malagar's spell of traveling between planes.

Inside, in a thick, almost unbreathable air, a cloud of dust and winds of negative energy, they soon discovered a fountain that had been left intact, water running, gold coins in the basin, everything. Quill immediately rushed in to grab some coins – but was grabbed herself by a water weird that guarded them. While the party was trying to free her, the avian also noticed a chest, visible and prone-to-touch only when you have water in your mouth from the fountain.

By opening it, they unleashed an air elemental and some floating swords that, followed shortly by a chain lightning trap, almost completely wiped out the party. The traps and the elemental seemingly concentrated its attacks on Relcor – another sign that all this was prepared for his undoing.

They eventually managed to defeat the elemental and the swords. After seeing that there was, in fact, seemingly nothing – or, more precisely, a piece of the Ream Beyond the Stars, trapped inside the chest, they decided to take some time to recuperate before making a choice as to how they should proceed…

The Red Boar inn turned out to be pretty empty, except for the somewhat suspicious innkeeper, who turned out to be a horrible cook as well when the party wanted to eat something the next day. The innkeeper told the characters how sorry he was, but now that her half-giant wife was out of town for a few days (as she does every month), he didn't really think anyone would want to stay there. He offered to go get some supplies, but locked them in when he left – which told the party that there were things he wanted to hide.

After a few minutes, they found a magical lock on a door to a staircase; opening that meant finding the wife of the innkeeper in chains. She was no half-giant, but a fully developed hill giant – under some sort of spell. Quill managed to break the spell and that turned the giant back into her original half-giant form – but didn't really help her mood. The wife explained her husband and she got some extra profit from people seeking a good fight during the days she was a dumb full-giant and now the whole business will suffer.

The party obviously decided to leave as soon as possible. After some careful consideration, they returned to Gerana to make use of the Church-controlled teleportation grid that might take them to the capital in an instant. It turned out that using the Ecclesial Ring is free, but you have to take a purifying bath and make a confession in order to be allowed to use it.

After Sei's insisting that she was cursed and not allowed to even enter a temple, Quill tried relieving the sorceress of that – and to the avian's surprise, Sei did turn out to have been cursed by birth. But, now that curse has been lifted, they all proceeded to take a holy bath and they all confessed, some more honestly than others – and finally arrived to Salamis shortly after.

Quill gained 5 AP, for a total of 14. She gained a level; she's now at level 10 with 4 AP (of 11 that's necessary to reach her next level).
Sei gained 5 AP, for a total of 7 (of 11 that's necessary to reach her next level).
Relcor gained 2 AP, for a total of 5 (of 10 that's necessary to reach his next level).